maybe the tsa could hire motivational speakers look, like I say, I don't fly much so i may not be sympathetic. I can understand being upset with someone who won't perfom a task as simple as looking at a bag go through a screener because they are yip yapping about young and the restless or ray jay's reality show or whatever. alls i'm saying its a simple function of human nature and that is what we have with a bunch of non professionals manning these stations. i'm not defending it, just it is what it is think about it, most of you are probably at work right now yip yapping about the tsa, i know i am
Here's many of us....reading and posting on cc.net while at work....chastising the TSA folks for chatting while they're at theirs (i know....different jobs. But you got to give some leeway for them to chat as long as they're watching the screens. And I don't know how bad basso's agents were sloffing off...).
I'm guessing OP is white. I think TSA would be more serious if they see a middle easterner, or a passport / name from a flagged country. So lesson 1 for terrorists: change your name to Joe Smith.
Their concerns about the safety of the passengers has little to do with it. Their pay has little to do with it. The reality is it takes a disciplined person to sit in front of a screen, all day long, day after day. I have no doubt the majority of these people take their job seriously. You can't expect a person to be a robot. What it will take is paying disciplined people and giving them shorter shifts on jobs that require full attention.
I actually agree with a lot of this, maybe i'm too negative on the workers' attitudes and just don't appreciate the mundaness of their job. everyday i'm posting on the bbs from work i appreciate that I work in a job that allows me this release.
Herein lies the problem of what you went through, OP sir. I bet the description is also for the supervisors. I agree with you on this. If we point out their incompetence, they'll complain about our complaint.
Your statistical chance of being in a plane with a b%mb are so ridiculously small that the actions of the TSA checkers whether diligent or indifferent can not effect the number in any significant way. Basso as usual was being a self-righteous, self-important ass. He probably stops to rat out highway workers leaning on a shovel too like the highway won't get built if he isn't shoveling.
On your return trip home, try placing a toy gun in your bags to test the security alertness again. Thanks for keeping America safe basso.
Of course, it would be a bit difficult to write a letter if his plane had been blown up. As unlikely as it is re-screening was the only option. Why not just start profiling and using tactics like those on Israeli airlines?
Tell that to the folks on NWA Flight 253. As long as the chances are 1 in something, the screeners should be diligent about their job.
I don't think NWA Flight 253 was a Jetblue to Vegas. But, the statistical point still stands. Even with just shi**y half assed efforts on the part of the TSA your chances of being b*mbed out the sky in an airplane over the US are infinitesimal. I really can't imagine maintaining focus for 100 bags of underwear per hour, 40 hours per week. Don't they have image recognition software that scans the x-ray images? Robots are so much better at repetitive things than humans. Whereas, humans are good at recognizing ******* behavior and punishing it.
I bet the families of 9/11 would disagree with you. So the chances are slim....that makes it OK for security to not give a crap? If that is the job they chose and they are getting paid for it, should they not do their best? I agree that checking 100 bags of underwear must really suck as a career, but it's what they chose. This is why they should switch to checking only those people who would likely be carrying a bomb instead of strip searching the 80 year old white guy wearing his Korean War Veteran baseball cap.
Now basso knows what people who happen to be born to a Muslim family feel like. Now, basso, imagine the same thing happened to you every time you got on an airplane even though you'd never done a violent thing in your life. Might leave you feeling a bit disaffected, huh? Anyway:
This. Regardless of how talented the screeners are and regardless of how much you pay them, it is not possible to focus intently on an x-ray machine for 40 hours a week. Especially when chances are this screener will never, ever uncover an actual terrorist in his whole bag-screening career. Given the volume of passengers, an automated checker or a process solution is required.